Best/Worst fictional universe

Define “best” and “worst” as you see fit - most appealing, most likely, most workable, least thought-out, most cliche-ridden, whatever. A little bit of description would be nice.

Books, TV, movies, anime, comics, etc are all game.

Best:

Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth (Pandora’s Star, Judas Unchained). An intersteller culture bound together by wormholes that are used to run trains from star to star. Immortality is possible with “rejuvenation”, a technique to de-age your body to about 20 yrs old, and memory cells, recording everything you see, hear, etc, meaning that you can be restored if you met with accidental death.

The Lost-verse. The answers exist, they just won’t be revealed to us. :wink: While it took place on “our” world, these people create their own little micro-verse, operating in a world with slightly different rules (e.g., you can knock out anybody at any time without any consequences, time travel).

Worst:

Margaret Atwood’s Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale. To combat declining birthrates brought about by environmental collapse, the US (and I think Canada) turns into a Christian theocracy where the few remaining fertile women of child-bearing age are:

  1. Rounded up into camps
  2. To conceive, they are allowed only to have sex with the 60+ year-old base commander.
  3. If, after only 3 tries, she doesn’t get pregnant, she is banished from society, either put in a whorehouse or relocated to one of the more environmentaly devastated locations in the country where their life expectancy in years could be measured in single digits.

Oh, and one out of every 4 babies were actually a mutant, which was then killed (if it could live in the first place).

So, you’re going to round up all your fertile women, give them to 60 year-old guys so they can shag them three times, and if she doesn’t get pregnant, you’re going to kill her? In a world where 25% of pregnancies carried to term are either a mutant or a dead child? That’s your plan to boost birthrates? Really?

A fine book hobbled with a stupid background.

Off the top of my head, the Pokemon universe is great

Think about it. All criminals are incompetent. 10 year olds can walk around alone with no fear. Pets have magical powers. The most serious injuries you can sustain can be fixed with a quick trip to the Pokemon Center. All the nurses and cops are hot and are related to each other.

Best

The Humananx Commonwealth. Humans reach the stars, and meet their " Vulcan " counterparts. Except the Thranx are highly intelligent & logical bugs .Both races benefit from the other’s nature.

Worst:

The well of Souls universe prior to the introduction of the cure for Sponge addiction. Sponge Dealers have taken over whole planets by enslaving the planet’s rulers to sponge.